Cayl's Message to Fury in Round 4

This is a mail sent by Fury Executive Cayl to Fury members in the first half of Round 4 when Fury were coming under heavy pressure from the rest of the universe.

Greetings fellow Fury,

These last two weeks have been filled with hard fought battles, late
nights, and low morale. The boards are filled with propaganda, and
for once our members don't seem to have the answers.

For Americans what I am going to quote will be very cliche. But I
think it applies quite well to our situation.

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the
sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his
country; but he that stands it NOW deserves the love and thanks of
men and women. Tyranny, like hell is not easily conquered, yet we
have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more
glorious the triumph.  What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too
lightly. Tis dearness only that gives everything its value.

--Thomas Paine
--The American Crisis

This was of course written during the American revolution in 1776. So
what does it mean to us, now as we fight Legion? Those who were with
Fury when we were on top and winning now have to reconsider. It is
actually possible to be attacked. It is possible to lose asteroids.
Those who value nothing so much as their personal scores and asteroid
count will now shrink from the task of fighting VeX. They will
abandon their friends and seek any middle ground that will allow them
to keep the little binary bits in a data field labeled "asteroids".

Those of us who stick with it and fight this war will realize that
the real purpose of Fury is not Planetarion. The game has been flawed
for at least 8 months. Every round seems to get worse than the last.
But what we have created is a community of friends. When you quit, or
worse, decide to outright spy on us, you betray the trust put in you
by real people who called you friend.

The war is not going as badly as Legion would have you believe, or
that you have talked yourselves into believing. Every night we seem
to lose asteroids. What you don't realize is that we are indeed
giving as good as we are getting. Legion does not have an endless
supply of ships, and by working with our allies, we regularly deplete
their spider supply and steal their asteroids.

Even when we do face a military defeat, the result is a largely blow
to our pride. The most you lose in 3 ticks is 30% of your asteroids.
With the combat rules of this round, you rarely lose your entire
fleet. The asteroids that left so easily can be recaptured.

The unhappy fact of this game is that the action takes place at the
backup. Poor planning and coding means that there are quirks in the
ticks. Fleets can move a long ways towards a target in just a few
real time minutes. Unhappily for most of us, the backup is at 0400.

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly."

Round 3 was too easy, we obtained the top almost effortlessly. We
mistook our place on the top almost as divine right, we did not come
into this game ready to make the sacrifices it required.

The real question is, are we hungry for the top? Are we willing to
get ourselves up at 4 am and launch attacks. Are we willing to stay
on til 5 am and defend our mates from the same type of attacks by VeX?

Legion has answered this question. They are willing to stay up until
whatever time it takes to beat us. We will either rise to this
challenge or we will be ground down and beaten. It has to be a
personal choice made by each and every member.

I hope that we, your leaders can regain your confidence in us and
yourselves. In several ways we have let you down. I hope that we are
correcting our errors and can once again lead you to victory.

You may contact me with any questions or concerns at
[email protected].

--Cayl
Fury Executive